First Flight (Last Men On Mars)
by handmaidenofhorror
Summary: Actually a Golion story following Akira and Takashi before the events of the anime. You know how it ends.


div class="userstuff"  
p align="JUSTIFY"People tended to consider Takashi Shirogane an asshole. If somebody asked Takashi, he wouldn't have denied it. He most likely wouldn't have said anything at all. And here lies the heart of the problem – Takashi Shirogane is just so damn silent all the time, which together with his unemotive face ('resting bitch face', as somebody once told him) tended to make people feel uncomfortable in his presence./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"And, honestly? Takashi didn't really care. People tended to talk too much, emote too much, panic easily where they should remain calm and task focused. He worked much better alone./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Ok, maybe he really was an asshole./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Even if, Takashi's assholery made him the best astronaut in Japan. In the long run, he believed his attitude to be crucial to landing him where he is standing – namely, watching the spaceship that is going to take him to Mars, the first Japanese astronaut to do so./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"An awkward cough reminded him that the title is not solely his to gain./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Takashi turned his gaze from the spaceship into the astronauts' suite./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Here he was, his copilot. Akira Kogane was a baby faced twenty years old, a child prodigy who graduared Todai aged just fourteen and immediately enrolled into JAXA space program. Takashi was vaguely aware of the controversy surrounding is choice as part of first Japanese mission to the red planet: Kogane was born on Taiwan to a mixed Chinese-Japanese couple and spoke Chinese as his mother language (Takashi recalls the young man's name before moving to Japan was Jin Xu)./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"If anyone asked Takashi, judging an astronaut based on his ethnicity rather than ability was a rubbish not fitting a space age (or even steam age). Alas, nobody ever asks Takashi about anything./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"A small part of the man wished someone did./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Takashi stared at Akira in silence, waiting for the man to say something. The silence turned awkwardly long, as usual with Takashi. Thankfully, before it turned churlish, Akira smiled awkwardly and asked, 'Worried?'./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Takashi pondered the answer a few secnds. Normally, he'd just reply 'No' and leave it at that. However, Kogane was visibly nervous, even if he tried to cover it with his boyish smile. So, instead, he said 'If I am ever in a pinch, I am sure you will help me, Therefore, I do not worry.'/p  
p align="JUSTIFY"The reply clearly surprised Kogane, his mouth briefly stuck in an adorable 'O' shape. That was certainly not what he had expected./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Kogane closed his mouth. He looked more solemn. 'I cannot help but fear I won't make it back home,' he confessed. 'I've spent much of my last day before taking the space elevator visiting various shrines to write prayers for safe return.'/p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Now Takashi was surprised. He realized that, no matter how accomplished, his companion was still very young, and the burden placed on his shoulders perhaps too heavy to bear./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Impulsively, Takashi decided to comfort the other man. He was terrible with words, so he instead of saying something, he simply hugged Akira./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Akira on his part looked startled again, but then laughed and said, returning the hug 'You are full of surprises, mister Shirogane'./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"The two men cuddled in silence for a while./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Akira seemed to take a liking to Shirogane afterwards. The few days they've spent training in the orbital colony, Akira looked much calmer, maybe almost happy. They have spent much of their free time together, Akira doing much of the talking while Takashi listened, commenting compactly now and then. Takashi felt content, even though he didn't know what to make of this new found friendship (his first friendship), but he had to admit he enjoyed Akira's company. He couldn't have wished for a better copilot, not only due to his skills (truly magnificent for somebody so young), but also because Akira respected his boundaries, and his style of communication. Takashi, who had his whole life believed himself to be antisocial, unexpectedly found himself enjoying the company of the other man./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"And so, the flight happened. Experimental, novel solar wind powered aicraft made the voyage to Mars extraordinairly fast, taking less than a month, setting a new record. A month spent together for Akira and Takashi meant growing especially close, as for most of the journey there weren't all that many duties to perform. Working together, they learned to understand each other without words./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Not that they weren't talking. Oh, they were. Initially Akira did much of the talking, but soon Takashi opened up too. About being one of twin brothers, and his struggle to being seen as himself, and not half of a set. His desperate attempts to distance himself from his family that in the end made him alienated from former associattes and kin without forming new bonds. Takashi came to full realisation of his loneliness./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Akira on his part talked about the struggle of being mixed, too Japanese for the Chinese, and too Chinese for the Japanese. About feeling homesick no matter where he went, ironically feeling most at home in space. Turns out he didn't have any friends either, despite being so lovable. Takashi started to feel protective over the young man./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"The feeling of alienation brought them together. On the space ship, they were alone together. Takashi has never had such connection with another person, not even his brother. Akira simply emresonated/em with him. For the first time in years, the man felt truly happy. Takashi wished for the two of them to continue exploring space forever./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Alas, it didn't came to be./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"As it happens, the strained diplomatic relations between the worlds' two superpowers have become inflamed during Akira and Takashi's journey, and by the time they reached Mars orders came to return as quickly as possible, by the way taking the astronauts from the Moon base. The relationship between the two men became tense too, with Takashi again closing into himself and Akira spending a lot of time praying and trying to cheer up the newcomers, all of them fresh JAXA space program graduates, at least one of them clearly underage. Suddenly, Akira and Takashi were no longer alone, and somehow that made the bond they shared start to disappear./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"And then, things got worse. Oh God, did they get worse. Takashi stopped believing in supernatural as a young teen, but when the new of missile strike reached them, he prayed with all of his heart for it to be a false alarm, or a nightmare he could wake up from./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Of course, it wasn't. It never was./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"And thus, five men were orbiting a clearly dead planet, last living specimen of an extinct species in a spacecraft running out of air and water (food was long gone), destined for a slow death./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Takashi didn't want to see Akira die like this./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"He made up a plan. A poison easy to make with medical substances on board of the ship. It's tasteless and odourless, and easily solvable in water. He would poison his co-passengers, giving them a peaceful death, and then crash their spaceship on the planet's surface, so that at least they found rest at home (emfor Akira, it was never home/em, a small voice in his head said)./p  
p align="JUSTIFY"Who would have thought that the impossible arrival of alien slavers would save the crew's lives./p  
/div 


End file.
